The Latest News from PlanA

Businesses I work with (that I think are a good snap shot of Hawke's Bay SMEs) had a pretty strong run up to the end of 2020 and a good finish to the end of the financial year. Their financial reporting is showing strong trading and financial position, but there is still a feeling of cautious optimism.

In my October 2020 Spring Update I outlined how I saw the Hawke's Bay business climate as we headed towards Christmas – READ IT HERE. And without wanting to sound like Ground Hog day, in my view not a lot has changed.

Today I want to talk about shareholders agreements. I was with some people the other day and we were discussing their shareholders agreement and I just thought I'd pass on to you what I see are the key features around shareholder agreements.

I was asked the other day if I work with people outside Hawke's Bay and the answer is yes I do and yes I can. With technology as it is today, it doesn't matter where you're located within New Zealand. If you think we can add some value to your business then we can definitely help wherever you are.

I just thought I'd tell you about how I was made to feel like a 12-year-old school boy the other day. So I challenge you to ask yourself this question: are you putting barriers in your customers way that they either don't want to come and do business in your industry or don't want to do business with you?

What's your competitive advantage? Why would people want to do business with you? This vlog is a continuation of the series I'm doing around strategic and business planning, and today I've got a really simple question for you to think about, although the answer may be a lot more complex!

Imagine if one of the kids said I've kicked my ball up on the roof. You go and get a ladder, put it up against the wall, make sure it's on a nice flat level piece of ground, and the rungs are all good. Then you climb to the top and get yourself up on the roof. But unfortunately you find your ladder is up against the wrong building!

When I chat to people about their strategic planning or their business planning, an answer I quite often get is, "I know I need to do something, but I just don't quite know what to do". So that's why, over the next couple of months, I'm going to do a series of vlogs talking about both strategic planning, that really big picture side of things, right down to business planning, along with implementation plans and how to make things happen.

Well, kia ora folks, thanks very much for taking the time to come and check out today's vlog. You know, people often tell me they'd love to have the time to step back and set some plans for their business. But one of the challenges is they don't actually know what to do or how to go about it.

For most of us in December we were thinking about the run up to Christmas: bbqs, beaches, wearing jandals, all that great summer stuff. But you may have missed there was also some new government legislation released 1 December 2020 – the Privacy Act 2020.